Japan Grounds Its Fleet Of F-15s After Fuel Tank Falls Off In Flight

Japanese officials announced Saturday that a 350-pound fuel tank
and part of a dummy missile fell off an F-15 during a training
mission, prompting Tokyo to ground the fleet for the second time
in three months.

The
Taiwan News reports that the entire 202 plane fleet will be
grounded indefinitely and available only for emergency scrambles.

No one was injured when the tank dislodged near Komatsu airbase
in western Japan, unlike the July incident where a pilot was
killed when his F-15 went down in the East China Sea.

The incident comes as Tokyo looks to replace its aging fleet of
F-15s with newer aircraft.

Japan is the largest user of U.S. developed military jets and is
expected to announce where it will buy the $8 billion in new
aircraft from by the end of the year.

Up to 50 new planes will be delivered with the final decision
likely to be either Lockheed F-35, Boeing F/A-18s, or the Eurofighter Typhoon.